The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge is ready for testing ahead of its forecast opening date in May.

Officials from the three cities agreed at a meeting in Zhuhai on Tuesday to go ahead with joint trials on the 30-kilometre main bridge, HK01 reported.

Touted as the world’s longest sea bridge and including a 6.7-kilometre tunnel, it has been under construction across the Pearl River mouth since 2009.

The bridge was due to open in 2016, but has been delayed by a series of engineering problems and accidents. Ten workers have died on the Hong Kong segment of the project.

A lab technician has been jailed for eight months for falsifying test results on bridge concrete, while three contractors have been found guilty over a 2014 accident that killed one workers and injured four others.

The main bridge, originally expected to cost 15.7 billion yuan, is now costing 25 billion yuan, with Hong Kong footing the bill for a fifth of the cost overrun.

The other key elements of the HK$120 billion Hong Kong end of the project – an 11-kilometre viaduct and link road along the north Lantau coast, and the border crossing facilities on Chek Lap Kok – have also been completed.

However, the nine-kilometre tunnel and freeway link between Chek Lap Kok and Tuen Mun will not open until at least 2020.